Elizabeth Raum

From Wind Repertory Project
Elizabeth Raum

Biography

Elizabeth Raum (b. 13 January 1945, Berlin, N.H.) is a Canadian oboist and composer.

Ms. Raum earned her Bachelor of Music degree in oboe performance from the Eastman School of Music in 1966 and her Master of Music degree in composition from the University of Regina in 1985. She played principal oboe in the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra in Halifax, Nova Scotia, for seven years before coming to Regina in 1975. She played principal oboe in the Regina Symphony Orchestra until her retirement in 2010.

Raum has established herself as one of Canada’s most eminent composers with commissions coming from such important performing groups as the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, St. Lawrence String Quartet, Symphony Nova Scotia, as well as many other performing organizations and individuals. Her music is played all over the world in concerts and festivals throughout Canada, the U.S., Europe including Rome, England, Portugal, Switzerland, Germany, Hungary, Russia, China and Japan.

She has also been the featured composer for the James Madison University New Music Festival in Virginia, the Colours of Music Festival in Barrie, Ontario, the International Women’s Brass Conference in Toronto, and International Tuba Conferences in Budapest, Minnesota, and Regina. She was awarded the Canadian Composer Award by the Canadian Band Association, has three times received the award for Best Musical Score by the Saskatchewan Film and Video Showcase Awards and won in the Best Classical Composition category for the Western Canadian Music Awards as well as being nominated in the same class two additional times. She has also been presented with the Commemorative Medal for the Centennial of Saskatchewan and the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada medal and in 2010 received the Saskatchewan Order of Merit. In 2004 she was given an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters From Mt. St. Vincent University in Halifax Nova Scotia. She received a commission from the Maritime Concert Opera, supported by the Ontario Arts Council, to write a full length opera, Time of Trouble, which was premiered by Opera Nova Scotia in December, 2016 and received a full production by Opera Nova Scotia the following year.

An extremely prolific composer, her works include four operas, over 80 chamber pieces, 19 vocal works, choral works including an oratorio, several ballets, concerti and major orchestral works. Pieces by Elizabeth Raum have won many prestigious awards, have been heard throughout North America, Europe, South America, China, Japan, and Russia, and have been broadcast extensively on the CBC. She enjoys a reputation of being one of Canada's most "accessible" composers, writing for varied mediums and in remarkably diverse styles.


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